Over Coming Despair: Purely Optimistic
by HeyHeyFrey
Summary: Riley was active, happy, and overall healthy. But when one article takes Fear to the point of taking control, there's much more the emotions have to learn about themselves and Riley as a person.
1. An Ordinary Morning

"Another wonderful day! Another wonderful day!" Joy jumped up and down enthusiastically to start Riley's day. "It'll be another great one!"

All the other emotions walked out to Riley's control center. "Well maybe…" Sadness sighed, collapsing on the floor. Joy just smiled and helped pick her up off the floor. We needed all emotions to start the day.

"Ugh, we will _never_ wear that sweater grandma sent us again! Did you see those looks the cool girls gave us?" Disgust gagged humorously, and then began to file her nails. Anger, however, fumed. "I can't believe those jerks judged us! Who do they think they are?"

Joy wandered over to the control station to start Riley's day. Riley was fifteen now, having already gone through a year of high school, being an excellent student and an exceptional athlete. Things were really looking well for her future, and the five emotions couldn't be happier about it. "We have to check our phone for the big game today! It's so exciting!" Joy couldn't contain her excitement as she controlled the board to get Riley up and to check her phone. "Hmmmm no emails." Joy sighed. "Well! Let's check if there's any new cute kitten videos just to give us a little laugh."

"Oh, I love the little kittens, but it's sad when they hurt themselves…" Sadness sighed. Joy patted her head reassuringly and Riley clicked on the internet icon on her phone. The first thing that popped up on the internet tab was a bunch of news articles and videos, but the one that made the headlines was distressing.

"What does that say?" Fear looked closely at the title and the description, causing Riley to study it for a while as well.

"Teen Accidentally Harms Parents, Both in Critical Condition" the article's title stated. Suddenly Fear froze, his entire being felt heavy and unpredictable, his whole figure shaking after processing what the title meant. He noticed the control board looking off as well; something about it was strikingly unfamiliar to him, and he couldn't help but feel something was terribly wrong. This wasn't his normal act of worrying, he truly, truly felt something was wrong with Riley. She was in danger. _We are in danger._

"Oh goodness, well, time to search cat videos!" Joy hummed, having Riley type kitten videos in the little search bar.

However, Fear lunged forward and took control of the panel. "No! No, we need to put the phone down."

The other emotions were taken aback by Fear's sudden insistence of control of the panel. He wasn't the one to take lead very often, if ever. "What do you think you're doing, Fear?!" Disgust questioned. "You know Joy needs to start off Riley's day!"

However, Joy remembered what happened with Sadness years before, and had learned that it was best for an emotion to take over if they feel it to be necessary. "No, it's alright guys. We can let Fear take control if he's gotta." She smiled reassuringly to all of them, however Joy couldn't shake the gut feeling that maybe it wasn't a good idea. But nevertheless, Fear got Riley up and got her to the bathroom where she did her morning routine patiently. "We're okay. We're okay. We're okay? Maybe we aren't? No we are. Well we will be. Maybe." Fear just kept whispering to himself over and over these few lines for some reason, he really wasn't sure why. He blamed it on the odd experience he had experienced when he saw the article title, and tried to reassure himself he was just shaken up and him and Riley will feel better after the moment subsides.

"What the heck is wrong with him?" Disgust whispered to Joy.

She just shrugged. "It's probably just 'flight or fight' again. It's fine."


	2. Research and Tears

"Are you alright, Riley?"

Joy seemed to be alert at this. "Mom just asked if something was wrong!"

"Well, take control, Joy." Disgust sighed. "Nothing even happened."

"What?" Fear stayed near the control panel. He turned and started pressing certain buttons.

"I-I'm fine." Riley muttered to mom. "Just some stress from school."

Her mom nodded and smiled. Something took control of Fear, something that took control of him a couple of days ago. He pressed some buttons. "I-I'm gonna go to my room now." Riley stated, and then headed towards the stairs.

Joy watched in hope that Fear knew what he was doing.

As the days progressed, the emotions noticed that Riley rarely saw her Mom or Dad anymore. "Fear, maybe we should go to Mom and Dad. They might think we ran away again!" Anger sighed sarcastically. "No, but seriously. Why are you making Riley stay in her room all day?"

Riley was searching articles of domestic abuse, which worried Joy. What was Fear doing?

"I think a different emotion should take control now, Fear." Joy insisted.

"N-No!" He seemed to guard the panel from the other emotions. "Trust me! If we do this, it will help!"

"Why are you even searching this?" Disgust asked.

"Because of the article from earlier..." Fear insisted. "If we learn about it, we won't do it."

"But we won't do it anyway! Riley is a good person." Joy exclaimed. "C'mon! You know that Fear!"

"But it can happen, there is always a chance. Can you deny that Joy?" Fear countered.

The other emotions looked at each other. Joy shrugged. "I mean, I guess it's possible. But unlikely!"

"Well, doing this will make it even more unlikely. If we learn about it, we won't do it." Fear was determined to stay on the control panel.

Sadness looked out to Riley's memories and islands and could sense something was off. Everything was still there, but... it was almost as if there was an eerie mist over everything. Something that slowed down the island, that clouded the memories. She didn't know it for certain, but she could feel it.

Sadness wondered over to the panel, and Fear didn't stop her, or even pay attention to her. The other emotions were shocked. Sadness touched a button, and Riley began to cry. Fear touched some other buttons and Riley began to mutter some words. "I won't do it...I don't want to..."

"That's not good enough." Fear sighed and seemed to be shaking. "We...We have to know _for sure._ "

Sadness just looked at the button, and felt that she had to let Riley cry more. She felt that it might help Riley relieve stress. Fear kept having Riley search the internet, determined to find an answer.

The other emotions weren't sure what to do, all they could do was watch and hope that Fear and Sadness knew what they were doing.


End file.
